Clear skies greeted 189 visitors to Western University’s Cronyn Observatory Summer Public Night, Saturday, August 4th, 2018, 8:30 p.m. Graduate student Ameek Sidhu made 2 presentations of her digital slide presentation “Spitzer Space Telescope – Observing the Universe in Infrared” and fielded questions. Professor Margaret Campbell-Brown did the “Transit Demonstration” and the “Spectroscopy Demonstration” downstairs in the “Black Room.”
RASC London Centre was represented by Dave Clark, Paul Kerans, Bob Duff, Everett Clark, Heather MacIsaac, Dale Armstrong, Henry Leparskas and new member Lynn Jones. Bob counted 88 visitors before Lynn Jones took over at the door and counted another 101 arrivals for a total of 189 visitors.
Professor Peter Brown was telescope operator in the dome and showed visitors Venus, Jupiter and Mars through the big 25.4cm refractor (17mm Nagler eyepiece, 258X). On the observation deck, Dale Armstrong operated the observatory’s Meade 8-inch (20.3cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain, using the 15mm Sky-Watcher UltraWide eyepiece together with the CEMAX 2X Barlow lens (from the 90mm Coronado H-alpha solar telescope) for a magnification of 266X, to show visitors Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Bob Duff operated the London Centre’s home-built 30.5cm Dobsonian and showed visitors Jupiter and Saturn (18mm Radian eyepiece, 83X), swapping in the 12.5mm Ortho eyepiece (120X) for a closer view of Saturn. Heather MacIsaac set up her Celestron NexStar 90SLT 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain, showing visitors Jupiter (22mm Vixen Lanthanum LVW eyepiece, 57X) and then Saturn and Mars (13mm Vixen Lanthanum LVW eyepiece, 96X). Paul Kerans set up his Celestron 9.25-inch (23.5cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain on a Vixen equatorial mount and showed visitors Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Ring Nebula (M57) using his 21mm Ethos eyepiece (112X).
Dave Clark set up his Celestron Super C8 (20.3cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain on the sidewalk the south side of the observatory and showed people Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, using his 32mm Plossl eyepiece (63.5X), swapping in his 10mm Radian eyepiece (203X) for a better view of Saturn—with the Cassini Division very noticeable in both eyepieces. Mars was also observed through the Celestron Super C8 Schmidt-Cassegrain (10mm Radian eyepiece, 203X).
Dave moved his Celestron Super C8 Schmidt-Cassegrain onto the pavement as Saturn went behind the Engineering building and tried using the 10mm Radian with a 2X Barlow lens (406X) on Saturn and Mars, but the results were poor, showing less detail with than without the Barlow. Dave used his laptop computer to demonstrate planetary alignments and distances, other Mars oppositions and the reason for Venus’ phase.
Seeing conditions were exceptionally good in all telescopes, at moderately high magnifications, the cloud belts on Jupiter and the 4 Galilean moons and were clearly visible as was the Cassini Division in Saturn’s rings. Mars showed a bright orange disk with the south polar cap visible and some indistinct dark features noticeable.
Downstairs in the “Black Room” Professor Margaret Campbell-Brown did the the “Transit Demonstration,” with the “Transit Demo” model, showing how the transit detection method worked for finding extra-solar planets, and the “Spectroscopy Demonstration,” with the visitors putting on diffraction grating glasses to view the spectra of 4 gas discharge lamps, including hydrogen, helium, neon and mercury.
Henry Leparskas showed visitors the “1940s Period Room,” a recreation of Dr. H. R. Kingston’s 1940 office, with his brass refractor and the Sotellunium—a mechanical eclipse demonstration model built by W. G. Colgrove—on display; and the “1967 Period Room,” recreating the early control room of the Elginfield Observatory to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation—Canada 150. The “W. G. Colgrove Workshop Period Room” was also open for visitors’ inspection. The 3 “Period Rooms” were designed by RASC London Centre member Mark Tovey.
The visitors were mostly gone and the observatory was closed down around 11:00 p.m. after an excellent evening of planetary observing with special attention directed towards Mars.